by Donna Grant
“We heard her wyrran on Eigg. I’d bet all the coin I have that Deirdre is at Cairn Toul.”
Broc shrugged and closed his eyes. A heartbeat later, his dark eyes snapped open. “Logan is right.”
Gwynn smiled at Logan’s triumphant look. Her gaze moved to the head of the table where Fallon was watching Logan with narrowed eyes.
“How did you know?” Fallon asked Logan.
Logan threw up his hands. “It was a guess. I knew the first thing Deirdre would do was get to Cairn Toul as fast as she could. It’s her haven. Now, she’ll go after the Tablet of Orn.”
Larena stood and put her hand atop Fallon’s. “You know we have to get the book from Declan.”
“Aye, but I doona have to like it,” Fallon ground out.
Gwynn rose, her gaze locked with Fallon’s. “Good. When do we leave?”
“You willna be going back there,” Logan declared from behind her.
Gwynn whirled to face him. “Excuse me?”
“I willna have it, Gwynn. You barely got out alive the first time. Wallace made it clear he wants you to work with him … And that he wants you in his bed.”
Gwynn opened her mouth to reply as Reaghan moved to one side of her and Isla to the other.
“Yelling at him won’t get you what you want,” Reaghan whispered.
Isla nodded in agreement with Reaghan as she looked at Gwynn. “We deal with this daily. Pick your battles, Gwynn. I hate to admit it, but you going back to Declan’s mansion isn’t a good idea. Let the others handle this mission.”
As her anger at Logan telling her what to do diminished, Gwynn reluctantly agreed. She glared at Logan, though, and took a step toward him. “Fine. But if you come back injured again I’m going to…” she paused looking for the right thing to say, “… be very angry.”
“We’ll all return in perfect health,” Fallon announced. “Is that no’ right, Larena?”
Larena laughed and nodded in agreement. “Contrary to what you may think, my love, I don’t like danger.”
Fallon’s snort, followed by the other Warriors as they looked at their wives, made Gwynn duck her head to hide her smile.
There was something magical about MacLeod Castle, and it didn’t have anything to do with the Druids. It was from the deep, loving bonds that had formed among the people who had made the castle their home.
“I say we go to Declan’s tonight,” Larena announced.
Logan smiled widely. “Aye. An excellent plan. He willna be expecting it.”
“Tonight it is,” Fallon said.
Logan found his gaze returning to Gwynn again and again. He’d never felt such fear as he had when Gwynn stated that she would return to Declan’s. Logan would do anything—anything—to keep her away from Declan.
Thankfully, the others had intervened for him. He knew he’d been an arse to forbid her, but when it came to Gwynn, he couldn’t think clearly. He just knew he couldn’t allow Declan to get his evil hands on her.
Logan took a deep breath as he looked around the castle. By the saints, he had missed this place, and especially the people within its stone walls.
All that was missing were the four other Warriors.
And Deirdre’s, as well as Declan’s, death.
Logan’s eyes landed on Marcail. The last time he had seen her, her stomach had just begun to swell with Quinn’s child. Had she lost the babe? As he stared at her, he could see nothing of her stomach under jeans and a sweater that hung to her hips.
“You had better have a good reason for eyeing my wife as you are, Logan,” Quinn said.
Logan looked at Quinn, then back at Marcail. “Did you have the babe?”
Marcail laughed and nudged Quinn with her shoulder. “Tell him.”
“If I must,” Quinn said, but there was a smile on his lips. “Aye, Logan. We had the babe.”
“I was able to craft a shielding spell so that it allowed Marcail to carry her babe to term. Once the babe was born, I shifted part of the spell from Marcail to the child so he could grow,” Isla said.
Logan glanced around the castle. “Him? Where is he?”
“Aiden had an errand to run,” Marcail said.
Quinn beamed like the proud father he was. “He’ll return shortly. He’s been anxious to meet you and the others for some time now.”
Logan lowered himself back into his seat as he took in all he’d learned. “What of wee Braden and his mother, Fiona? And Odara?”
“Isla used the same spell on Braden,” Cara said. “He and Fiona are here as well. They decided to stay at the castle since there was nowhere else for them to go, even after Deirdre was gone. We were their family by then.”
Lucan said, “They’re with Aiden.”
“Odara was another matter,” Reaghan said softly. “We begged her to stay.”
Galen wrapped Reaghan’s hand in both of his. “But she would have none of it. She told us she’d seen too many years, and though she loved it here, she couldna imagine living through four centuries.”
“So you just let her go?” Logan asked.
Broc put his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair. “Hardly. She also didna have anywhere to go so we built her a small cottage just outside the shield. We visited her daily, making sure she had food, wood to stay warm, and anything else she needed.”
“Six months later, Galen went to see her and found her body,” Reaghan said. “She’d died in her sleep.”
Logan held Reaghan’s gaze and said, “I’m sorry. She was a good woman.”
“It’s what she wanted.”
For several long moments, everyone was quiet, lost in their memories. Logan smiled inwardly as he recalled Odara. She had been old, but she had been mentally strong. She might not have had much magic, but she was a Druid. And she had been part of their family.
“We’re going to need to know where Wallace would keep the book,” Fallon said. “I doona want Larena spending any more time in his mansion than she has to.”
Logan clenched his jaw and tossed up his hands. “The mansion is massive. We only saw the front entrance and his office.”
“I might be able to find the blueprints to the house,” Gwynn said. “I’m fairly handy with a computer.”
Logan should have known Gwynn would be involved somehow. But she had every right to be. Wallace had nearly killed her. He also had Gary Austin, and though Gwynn was angry at the man, he was still her father.
“Is there any way we could extract Gary as well?” Logan asked.
Broc rose and leaned back against the wall, his arms crossed. “That will be tricky. Why do you ask?”
“Because if Wallace loses the book, he’ll have no more use for Gary.”
“He knew what he was getting into,” Gwynn said, her eyes on the floor.
Logan stood and walked to stand next to her, forcing her violet eyes to meet his. “He might no’ have, Gwynn.”
“Regardless, he wants the Tablet of Orn more than he wants me.”
“But he’s your father.”
Gwynn wrinkled her nose. “A fact I cannot change.”
“This argument might be moot,” Galen said.
Larena slowly nodded her head. “I agree with Galen. If the book is under security, guarded by both men and magic, I may only have time to get either the book or Gwynn’s father.”
“The book comes first and foremost,” Gwynn stated.
Logan sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “Gwynn’s right. We have to get the book so we can find the Tablet before Deirdre or Wallace do.”
“Then let’s get to work,” Quinn said as he banged his hands on the table and rose.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Deirdre looked with an appreciative eye on her newly clean mountain. Well, as clean as the inside of a mountain could get.
Her wyrran had worked tirelessly, but that was just what they were supposed to do. Her Warriors, most especially Malcolm, had been sent out into the cities to collect a few items she needed.
And wanted.
As much as she hated to admit it, she enjoyed the clothes Declan had given her. The pants allowed for much freedom of movement, and she liked how men looked at her when she wore them.
After putting away her new clothes as well as the food and other personal items she’d requested, Deirdre had spent several hours making new wyrran.
“The wyrran were spotted a few months ago,” Malcolm said as he entered her chamber. “It was about the same time we arrived here.”
“And that concerns me why?” Deirdre asked.
“It concerns you because there was a picture of a wyrran in the newspaper.”
Deirdre frowned. “The what?”
“The newspaper. It’s like a book only thinner. It comes out once a day and lists the news.”
“So?”
“The newspaper also mentioned what they call a website. I asked someone in the town I was just in what that was. It seems there is this place called the internet where information is kept. She showed it to me. There is a video of the wyrran running across a field.”
Deirdre held up her hand. “Stop. I have no idea what you’re talking about. What’s a … what did you call it?”
“The internet? Or the video?”
“The video. What is it?”
Malcolm leaned a shoulder against the doorway. “It is a moving picture.”
“Oh,” she huffed in frustration. “I have so much to catch up on. Maybe we should bring a few people here so they can teach me what I need to know.”
“If that’s your wish.”
“What I wish is to understand this time! The people speak in a way that hurts my ears.”
He shrugged indifferently. “It’s no’ bad once you get used to it.”
Deirdre fisted her hands and lowered herself into a chair as she cocked her head to study Malcolm. “Tell me why there’s this fuss about my wyrran and the video?”
“Because the video is out there for anyone to see. Your wyrran made the newspapers, Deirdre. It means the MacLeods will see it. They will know we are here.”
“Shite,” Deirdre murmured. “I had hoped to surprise them.”
“No’ now.”
She rubbed her hands on the soft, smooth black leather pants. “Aye. No use now. The wyrran I sent to the Isle of Eigg returned without the artifact, but I didn’t expect them to find it. They did tell me the Druids are all but gone from the isle.”
“Verra odd, since that was their haven.”
“My thoughts exactly. I guess when I disappeared, they thought they were safe. But why did they stop using magic? Why would any Druid, mie or drough, not answer the call of their magic?”
Malcolm’s blond brow rose in response. “You’ll have to ask one of the Druids.”
“The wyrran felt the magic of a few Druids, but they said it was weak. All but one. Hers, they said, was strong. It’s her I want.”
“And the artifact.”
Deirdre smiled. “I already have one artifact. The sword you retrieved from the Celtic burial mound. That artifact will keep the MacLeods from awakening my sister. But having two artifacts, well, that can only help me.”
“Are you sure the sword is still here?”
“Of course it is. Where else would it be?” she asked as she stood and walked to a wall at the back of her chamber. She waved her hand over the stone and whispered the words that opened the secret compartment only she could unseal.
Yet when the stones moved to reveal the hideaway, the sword she had placed there was gone.
“Nay,” Deirdre choked. “This cannot be.”
Behind her, Malcolm snorted. “You were gone from this place for four hundred years. That was plenty of time for the MacLeods to find the sword.”
“Nay!” Deirdre screamed as magic charged through her body like lightning.
Her hair lifted around her, destroying everything in its path.
Malcolm closed the door as he exited Deirdre’s chamber. He wasn’t foolish enough to stay near her when she was in this kind of rage.
Malcolm’s lips twisted in a rueful smile as he thought about his cousin, Larena, and the MacLeods finding the sword. It was just what he had expected them to do. Why Deirdre hadn’t expected it concerned him.
A lot.
* * *
It hadn’t taken Gwynn long to find the blueprints for Declan’s mansion. It had been built at the end of the nineteenth century by some earl or another. Declan’s grandfather had bought it with his first million pounds and set about remodeling it.
Declan had inherited the mansion when he was just ten years old. He’d lived there with nannies and his mother until she died five years later. By the time Declan reached the age of twenty, he’d had new plans drawn up for some improvements.
Gwynn had been ready to give up when she happened to stumble across the blueprints. They showed several hidden access points and underground rooms that hadn’t been there previously.
“There’s more than this,” Gwynn told Fallon, Larena, and Logan. “I just know it. There’s no way Declan wouldn’t include a few hidden things on the blueprints.”
Logan’s lips flattened. “Aye. You probably have the right of it.”
“How are you going to get the book out?” Gwynn asked Larena. She’d been shocked to discover Larena could turn herself, but only herself, invisible. The power didn’t extend to her clothes or anything on her body or in her hands.
Larena ran her finger over the milky stone of the ring on her right hand. “I’ll wait until I can get the book out without being seen.”
“Naked, you mean,” Fallon said with a frown.
Larena lifted a perfectly arched blonde brow. “Do you have another idea?”
“Aye. I go in and get it.”
“And be shot full of drough blood bullets.”
“Better me than you.”
Logan and Gwynn chuckled at the couple’s bickering. It was obvious to anyone who watched the pair that the love between them was deep.
Larena glanced at Gwynn and began to laugh as well. “I can imagine how we sound to you.”
“You sound like two people who care about each other and who have spent several centuries together,” Gwynn said.
Fallon threw back his head and laughed. “Verra true.”
Logan’s smile disappeared as he picked up one of the bullets Sonya’s magic had removed. “I think we’re going to need more than just me and you watching Larena’s back,” he said to Fallon.
“Aye. I’ve already asked Broc to join us. He can fly overhead and watch from above,” Fallon said.
“I’m also thinking Hayden would be good to bring along.”
There was a snort behind them as Hayden walked into the hall. “As if you even have to ask.”
Gwynn’s job was done. All she could do was stand back and watch as Logan and the others prepared for their attack. Gwynn felt sick to her stomach thinking about anyone going inside Declan’s mansion.
When she had stood on the steps as Logan crawled to her car, Declan had let her feel the full force of his evil. And it was powerful.
She shuddered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms to ward off the chill that had taken hold of her.
“Are you all right?” Logan asked.
Gwynn jumped at the sound of his voice so close to her. She hadn’t heard him stir, and she didn’t think she’d ever get used to how fast he could move. “Yes.”
“You doona look all right.”
She managed a wan smile. “I don’t want any of y’all to go into that house.”
“Have I told you I love your accent?”
She blinked and raised her brows at him. “What?”
“Your accent. What did you call it? Oh, aye. A twang. I like it.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“Is it working?”
Gwynn smiled despite herself. “Yes.”
“Good. Now, I plan on hearing more of your charming accent and odd sayings when I return.”
/> She licked her lips and turned until she faced him. “Wallace’s magic is strong. I felt the force of his evil, and it gave me the creeps.”
“Deirdre is just as strong or stronger than he is, and we’ve faced her many times and won.”
“No. Declan is different. I’ve listened to your stories of the battles with Deirdre. Declan will come at you in ways none of you can prepare for. Please. This is a bad idea. Let’s return to Eigg. I’ll find the Tablet without the book.”
Logan ran a hand down his face, his hazel eyes troubled. “Do you have so little faith in us?”
“I’m worried about you. All of you. Maybe attacking so soon isn’t a good idea. Waiting a day or two while we head back to Eigg is the right decision.”
“Gwynn,” Logan said as he grasped her arms. He slid his hands down until their fingers touched. “I may be new to this time, but the others are no’. I remember all too well the feel of that drough blood inside me. I doona want to repeat the process anytime soon.”
She knew there was nothing she could say to sway him from the mission. Yes, they needed the book, but it wasn’t worth sacrificing anyone’s life for it.
Gwynn took a step closer to him, putting them toe to toe. “Tell Larena to concentrate on the book and the book only. We can go back for my father later, once we have the Tablet.”
“I will.”
“You promised you’d help me find my father, and you did.”
His hand lifted and lightly cupped her face. “I always carry through with my vows.”
A lock of honey-colored hair fell against his cheek. He caught her hand and turned his head to kiss her palm. Gwynn’s heart missed a beat at the intimate gesture.
When he pulled her into his arms she never thought to resist, never worried about who was in the hall and might see them. All that she cared about, all that she wanted was for Logan to hold her and chase away her fears for a few minutes.
As his hands spread over her back, his head dipped and he claimed her mouth. He took. He seized. He captured.
Gwynn surrendered to his demanding, hungry kiss. To the wonder and splendor of his masterful lips as they rekindled the inferno that had been banked but never died.
She plunged her fingers into his hair and pressed her body against his. His arms tightened, holding her close as he angled his mouth to deepen the kiss.